“The Lamb of God”
John 19:17-30
With the death of Jesus on Calvary, we witness, amid the noise of soldiers and criminals, gawkers and passers-by, what looks like the final triumph of evil.
All the ugliness and violence we can imagine takes place in the events that lead-up to the six hours during which God in human form hangs on a Cross on a hillside outside the gates of Jerusalem.
God has come into our world and we killed Him.
Jesus could have destroyed all the people with just one word.
Instead, for our sake, Jesus willingly carried His Cross, this horrible thing upon which He would be nailed.
“For God so loved the world.”
On Good Friday, we witness our human capacity for evil and the deadly consequence of our actions, silences, cruelty and collusion.
Jesus died because of our collective and representative sin.
Jesus was killed because of us.
Let’s allow that to sink in a bit.
I’m not trying to get us all depressed, but we really cannot appreciate Easter until we have been to the Cross.
It’s only when we have seen the full extent of evil on display there and have witnessed the apparent victory of death that we can even begin to appreciate the amazing, grace-filled, love-filled, life giving triumph that is Easter!
Crucifixion was a horrifying death.
The Romans used it as a crime deterrent.
That is why crucifixions took place where people would see them.
The goal of crucifixion was to inflict the most agony possible for the longest period of time.
Many of the victims would hang on a cross for days before they finally died.
Because of movies and pictures most of us imagine that Jesus, on the Cross, was quite a bit off the ground—but in reality, most crosses were no more than 9 feet tall leaving the victim’s feet just 3 feet off the ground.
So, on the day Jesus was crucified, He hung on the Cross just 2 or 3 feet above His mother, His aunt, Mary the wife of Clopas the disciple John, the soldiers and the ones who were laughing at Him and hurling insults at Him.
He could look into their eyes and they could look into His, as He struggled as He bled…as He died.
Many believe that those who were crucified most often died of asphyxiation.
This is because hanging on a Cross, it was extremely difficult to exhale without raising your body up.
And the longer a person hung on a Cross and the more exhausted a person became, the more difficult it was to breath.
Others think a buildup of fluid around the heart caused congestive heart failure.
We don’t know for sure.
But what we do know is that it was an extremely effective way to torture someone for a long period of time.
Jesus, bloodied and naked, hung on a Cross that way for 6 hours.
Can you imagine the amount of love involved in what God did for us on that first Good Friday?
Who would willingly sign up for something like that?
I can’t imagine.
Can you?
And so, today we come to the Cross and we are faced with the fact that we humans are so broken that we are capable of murdering God.
If we are willing to face it, Jesus’ suffering and death are a mirror held up to our souls, a reminder of the jealousy, pettiness, self-centeredness, spiritual blindness and darkness that lurk in all of us.
In his book, “The Science of Evil,” Simon Cohen writes the following:
“When I was seven years old, my father told me the Nazis turned Jews into lampshades.
It’s one of those comments that you hear once, and the thought never goes away.
To a child’s mind, and even to an adult’s, these two types of things just don’t belong together.
He also told me the Nazis turned Jews into bars of soap.
It sounds so unbelievable, yet it is actually true.
Sadly, there is no shortage of horrific examples of human behavior.”
Why did the murderer kill an innocent child?
Why did this person become a suicide bomber?
When push comes to shove, all of us are capable of horrible evil.
And so, we all need a Savior.
Think about it, as early as Genesis 4 human beings have been bringing special offerings to God.
The offerings are sacrificial—they come from the “first-fruits.”
And this is part of the process of expressing our sorrow and repentance when we hurt someone.
When we hurt someone we are alienated from them until we have acknowledged what we have done, asked for forgiveness and have done what we can to make things right.
Think about it.
When a person gets in a fight with their spouse, and then realizes they are wrong, they might leave them a note the next day and then look for ways to express their regret.
Often a person will buy the other person flowers or a tie or whatever.
In a similar way, in our relationship with God there is a need for us to acknowledge our sin, repent of it and seek to make things right.
In the Old Testament, God made a way for people to make amends through sin and guilt offerings.
This was a regular part of their worship.
The offering for sin was an animal—a living creature dying so that the guilty person might live.
Remember when John the Baptist saw Jesus for the first time?
What did he say?
“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
In the Exodus, the Israelites were told to kill a lamb and put its blood on the doors of their homes, so that when God passed over them, they would live—and then escape bondage in Egypt.
And on the Cross, Jesus Christ, became our sacrificial Lamb in order to free us from the bondage of sin and death…
…in order to atone for our sins.
Do you know what the definition of love is in the Bible?
The definition of love is a willingness to die—not just for someone who is nice to you, or someone who loves you—but for anyone and everyone.
Let’s all think for a moment.
Who would you die for?
Anyone?
A few?
Paul says in Romans Chapter 5, “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare die.
But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
He died, even for those who were killing Him.
From the Cross, Jesus prayed: “Father; forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
Jesus died for even for the Nazis.
Jesus died even for the serial killers.
Jesus died even for His greatest enemies.
Jesus died even for me.
Jesus died even for you.
Jesus died because: “God so loves the world.”
In John 19:30 Jesus says, “It is finished.’
With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”
What Jesus came to do, has been completed.
Jesus has won the victory over evil, providing us with the only means of salvation.
As Jesus cries out, “It is Finished,” the knife falls on the innocent Lamb of God, and in that moment all the sacrifices of all time by all people, from then until eternity, are gathered up and made obsolete forever.
Never again will there be another need to shed blood.
Never again will there be another need for a sacrifice for sin.
Never again will a debt need to be paid for our salvation.
God has accomplished it.
It is finished.
Forever.
It’s a free gift from God to everyone of us.
It cost Jesus His life, but it still a free gift.
All we must do is believe it, accept it, take it into our hearts and allow it to bring us new life.
Today we are going to have an Altar call.
And of course, you are watching this on your computer.
It’s just between you and God—as it always is.
All I want us to do is close our eyes.
For a short while, think about what Jesus has done for you through His death on the Cross.
Visualize in your mind the suffering of Christ.
Think your sin He died for.
Think about the Love He has for you that caused Him to freely accept His horrible fate.
Ask God to wrap you tightly in God’ love—forgiving you, watching over you, guiding you, transforming you, enabling you to love God and neighbor—making you one of God’s shining lights in this dark world.
Amen.
